Rural Water Sustainability

Sustainable is defined as able to continue over a period of time; or causing little or no damage to the environment and therefore able to continue for a long time. The key to sustainability would therefore appear to be to identify what enables a water supply to remain operational over a long period of time. However, it is important that the sustainability of a single hand pump is separated from that of the project or programme under which it was. The community management model remains by far the most widespread for rural water supply in sub-Saharan Africa, and yet has failed to deliver the levels of sustainability that were initially anticipated. As described above, experience suggests that there may often be better alternatives to community management and the authors aim to encourage pilot studies that test new and innovative models. It is accepted, however, that community management is currently the most common model implemented and is likely to remain so for the short-term future at least installed. The role of the communities in the operation, maintenance and management of rural water supplies was first described in Sessional Paper No. 1 of 1999 on National Policy for Water Resources Management and Development. The paper defined the involvement of communities in project development in all stages including planning, implementation and operation and maintenance in light of the changing economic conditions and increasing burden to government. The paper further recommended institutional steps to be taken to facilitate the role of the communities in the operation and maintenance of rural water supplies. Increasing the participation of the communities in project development was intended to create a sense of ownership of the projects by communities.